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30 Accessibility Designs That Are Straight Up Offensive

Accessibility is a vitally important feature of any civilized society - everyone, regardless of their mobility, should be able to access and enjoy public facilities. Poorly-designed accessibility for people in wheelchairs, for example, sends a pretty insulting message: "We added this feature because someone told us we had to, but it’s not important enough that we put any effort into making sure it actually helps."

Accessibility then becomes purely symbolic, something designed to show that 'we care,' but has no practical purpose. Sadly, people with disabilities encounter this kind of attitude all too often, and beyond the continuous and ongoing campaigns for accessibility rights, there is little left to do but laugh at these outrageous fails collected by Bored Panda.

So scroll down below to see where good intentions can go wrong for yourself, and if you see bad examples of wheelchair accessibility in your neighborhood, be sure to report it to your local council or government representative!

#1

To Invite A Disabled Man To Talk About Accessibility..

For some insight on accessibility matters Bored Panda spoke to Julienne at abilities.com, the resource for the disability community in the USA. Julienne is sadly all too acquainted with businesses making half-hearted attempts to prioritize and provide effective accessibility, even if they do follow the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design.

"Unfortunately, accessibility is just a burr under the saddle of many business owners," she told us. "It is an expense they don’t think they can afford because they don’t view the wheelchair community as the over $1 Trillion aggregate income market that it is. Their businesses aren’t accessible so they don’t see people in wheelchairs, so they don’t think they are important in their market. A classic Joseph Heller: Catch-22."

So what can be done to improve awareness on the importance of accessibility? How do we get businesses to understand that cutting costs and corners to make inadequate facilities isn't just inconvenient and potentially dangerous, but offensive too?

"People with disabilities and their supporters have to speak up," Julienne continues. "Post it on Yelp, take pictures and post it on the businesses’ social media. Use peer pressure, shame them, and most of all, vote with your wallet. Unfortunately, the winner there is Amazon. They saw the need of people who can’t/don’t want to leave their houses and have exploited it superbly.".

Being Handicapped In Cabo San Lucas Is Apparently An Extreme Sport. (Fb Friend's Vacation Pic)

Julienne believes that the best thing businesses can do is to simply ask a person using a wheelchair to share their experiences, and learn from them. Over 23 years in the wheelchair she has encountered no end of rude and frustrating situations where a little basic understanding would sure go a long way.

"The biggest problem is that they don’t have someone in a wheelchair consulting on the build," Julienne says. "If they had someone in a wheelchair try to bump up a steep grade, for example, and then hold themselves in place with one hand on a wheel while trying to open a heavy door with a handle too high, that swings OUT, they never would have built it that way."

"Put all owners, designers and employees in a wheelchair for a day and let them try it."

Makes sense, doesn't it? Julienne believes that it all starts with the individual’s awareness, so don't be afraid to talk to people with disabilities about their accessibility needs and frustrations. The more we learn to empathize with each other and experience the world in another person's shoes, the better things will be for everyone!

The Portuguese Parliament Had To Become Handicap Acessible Due To Having One Deputy On A Wheelchair. This Is The Result

"Had To Become Handicap Acessible" any building of an authority, and any building with a public function (such as hotels, bathrooms, libraries etc.) should be handicap accessible. Otherwise it prevents handicapped people from participating in a regular life!

Oh Yeah, You Could Get A Wheelchair In There No Problem

This locker is for disabled people because it is the only one that you can sit in front of. I would imagine this is to suit a particular person's needs. The sign is obviously not only for people who are in actual wheel-chairs, it is an immediately recognizable symbol!

Ilona is a photo editor at Bored Panda with an MA in Communication Of Creative Society. Before Bored Panda, she worked as a social media manager and freelance graphic designer. When she is not photoshopping or searching for the most interesting photos for stories, she is usually watching good movies and says that The Godfather is the best.

James is a Bored Panda reporter who graduated with a BA in Peace And Conflict Studies and an MA in African Affairs. Before Bored Panda, he was an English teacher and also travelled a lot, doing odd jobs from beer-slinging to brickie's labourer and freelance journalism along the way. James loves covering stories about social and environmental issues and prefers to highlight the positive things that unite us, rather than petty internet squabbles about fictional characters. James is the grumpy, contradictory one who thinks that Bored Panda, due to its large audience, has a social responsibility to inspire and inform its readers with interesting issues and entertaining, well-researched stories...

It mainly boils down to one thing - they never actually consult a disabled person or test it. Ramps must have grab rails and must be at a shallow angle. Anything 40 degrees or more is likely to be unusable. My mobility scooter cuts out if it goes that steep. My manual wheelchair would struggle to go safely up and down. Electric wheelchairs will likely suffer the same angle problem my scooter does. Steep angles are also no good for people who can walk but are not able to use stairs.

Oh do believe it. It can be ridiculous. Some designers think they're being really forward thinking with putting ramps on stairs for wheelchairs to bring everyone together, meanwhile disabled people, we were never consulted and only thought of as a stepping stone to look good andare screaming "we need grab rails! Ramps can't be at a steep angle because mobility vehicles cannot use them! Ramps are for more than just wheeled mobility vehicles so stop leaving steps in the middle of 2 narrow ramps, that makes it unsafe for wheels that may be hard to keep straight and unusable by those who need to walk!"
Recently I saw a photo of this big wide set of stairs and they'd put a ramp zig-zagging through the stairs like it is so amazing to nOT have to separate disabled people and pedestrians...but there's no grab rails, and with the stairs all around the ramps you can just see people constantly cutting off disabled people. There's zero chance of using that ramp at a busy time and it is so unsafe.

Agreed. It's worse than if they simply didn't make any attempt at accessibility. What mental gymnastics would a person have to go through to plan, pay for, and execute these "upgrades" while keeping your mind from considering if they'd actually work? On the flip side, my son had one person complain that his parkour school was not set up for handicapped people. PARKOUR SCHOOL. Not a chain, he makes $980/mo, there are two owners and one full-time instructor and very limited space. But somehow, he is expected to have to set up the entire place so that somehow someone in a wheelchair can practice parkour. He's have one customer for one month who decide maybe it wasn't the sport for him, and then the business would have to close. FYI, they have someone there who has almost no use of her legs and she's doing stuff I can't even do. And she asks for no 100K in rennovations to suite her particular needs. She just does what she can and doesn't do what she can't.

It mainly boils down to one thing - they never actually consult a disabled person or test it. Ramps must have grab rails and must be at a shallow angle. Anything 40 degrees or more is likely to be unusable. My mobility scooter cuts out if it goes that steep. My manual wheelchair would struggle to go safely up and down. Electric wheelchairs will likely suffer the same angle problem my scooter does. Steep angles are also no good for people who can walk but are not able to use stairs.

Oh do believe it. It can be ridiculous. Some designers think they're being really forward thinking with putting ramps on stairs for wheelchairs to bring everyone together, meanwhile disabled people, we were never consulted and only thought of as a stepping stone to look good andare screaming "we need grab rails! Ramps can't be at a steep angle because mobility vehicles cannot use them! Ramps are for more than just wheeled mobility vehicles so stop leaving steps in the middle of 2 narrow ramps, that makes it unsafe for wheels that may be hard to keep straight and unusable by those who need to walk!"
Recently I saw a photo of this big wide set of stairs and they'd put a ramp zig-zagging through the stairs like it is so amazing to nOT have to separate disabled people and pedestrians...but there's no grab rails, and with the stairs all around the ramps you can just see people constantly cutting off disabled people. There's zero chance of using that ramp at a busy time and it is so unsafe.

Agreed. It's worse than if they simply didn't make any attempt at accessibility. What mental gymnastics would a person have to go through to plan, pay for, and execute these "upgrades" while keeping your mind from considering if they'd actually work? On the flip side, my son had one person complain that his parkour school was not set up for handicapped people. PARKOUR SCHOOL. Not a chain, he makes $980/mo, there are two owners and one full-time instructor and very limited space. But somehow, he is expected to have to set up the entire place so that somehow someone in a wheelchair can practice parkour. He's have one customer for one month who decide maybe it wasn't the sport for him, and then the business would have to close. FYI, they have someone there who has almost no use of her legs and she's doing stuff I can't even do. And she asks for no 100K in rennovations to suite her particular needs. She just does what she can and doesn't do what she can't.